March Matness is upon us, every college wrestling fan's favorite time of the year. The NC State wrestling team closed out one tournament with another ACC trophy, and now the Wolfpack focuses on earning more hardware at the 2024 NCAA Championships.

The Pack is coming off an ACC Championships performance to remember.

NC State captured its sixth straight ACC title, with seven individual championships – both school records. The Pack also scored 116 team points, the most in school history and the most at the conference meet since Virginia had 117 points in 1974, and the 29.5 margin of victory over second-place Virginia Tech (116-86.5) was the most at the ACC Championship since 2017.

“It was not an easy task by any means with the development and improvement of this conference,” NC State coach Pat Popolizio said. “Those accomplishments are a reflection of everybody involved with our program. Everybody was on the same page, everybody showed up and met those high expectations going in. We attacked the plan that we had laid out dating back to the end of last year.”

NC State won conference titles at 125 pounds (Jakob Camacho — the third of his career), 133 (Kai Orine — for the second straight year), 141 (Ryan Jack), 149 (Jackson Arrington), 157 (Ed Scott — the second of his career), 197 (Trent Hidlay — the fourth of his career), and heavyweight (Owen Trephan — for the second straight year).

“Good momentum for all of those guys,” Popolizio said. “The field that they competed against was really good competition. I think as we get to this time of the year, you want to see that tough competition to know that you are ready, in shape and technically sound for the NCAAs.”

Since the 2017-18 campaign, NC State has claimed at least a share of 12 of the last 14 ACC Wrestling trophies (six ACC Championships and six ACC Dual/Regular Season Championships).

“I love the fact that our guys love to compete,” Popolizio said. “They embrace the challenges of wrestling tough competition and that is what makes this group special. When the stakes get high, they elevate their game. That was the case at ACCs.

Onto Kansas City

NC State will head to Kansas City on Monday to avoid any travel hiccups, or as the team encountered last year, early 3 a.m. wakeup calls to get one of those early morning flights out of RDU Airport.

“We were able to get some good recovery in after ACCs,” Popolizio said. “We are training really hard, but also really smart with our recovery at the end of this season. We have seen that has helped with our conditioning and our focus.

“I want to make sure our guys are on a good sleeping pattern. We want to get there, get acclimated, get familiar with the arena. The days before is just a good time for the guys to reflect and know that they are ready.”

NC State is one of seven schools to qualify all 10 for the 2024 NCAAs to be held in Kansas City. For just the third time in school history (2017 and 2022), the Wolfpack will be taking all 10 wrestlers to the NCAA Championships.

“I think it is a big accomplishment to get all 10 out there,” Popolizio said. “It is nice to have all 10, and you are going to need all 10 to score points. This time of year we switch from team (duals) to individual (tournaments), but we still want everybody out there all together. It keeps everybody relaxed and in check, knowing you have all 10 guys behind you.”

The seeds were also very favorable for the Pack, coming off one of the toughest schedules Popolizio has put together during the season. This year’s schedule included non-conference duals against Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Cornell and the annual trip to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invite.

“I do think we had one of the tougher non-conference schedules this year,” Popolizio said. “We put that together before we knew we had the ability to go out and compete at this level, but also it let us know what things we needed to work on. We took some losses in the dual season, but you need to face adversity, you need to know what you have to improve during a season.”

NC State has eight wrestlers receive a top-10 seed, seven seeded eight or better (All-American status), and five seeded in the top-five of their weight class.

The Wolfpack has brought home a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships each of the last three years – sixth place in 2021 and 10th in both 2022 and 2023. In addition to looking to extend its school record for consecutive top-10 finishes, NC State is also looking to capture its second team trophy in school history (the Pack placed fourth in 2018).

“Every guy’s goal is to get to Saturday night,” Popolizio said. “We have been training for months upon months for this weekend not it is time to go out and compete and make things happen.

“We just need to wrestle. We need to compete freely, with zero stress. We don’t need to overanalyze anything. We can put ourselves in a really good spot if we are relaxed when we hit that mat. We have a lot of really good guys, that can win at a really high level. They just need to go and reward themselves.”

Welcome to Raleigh

After nine seasons on the NC State coaching staff, associate head coach Adam Hall will be moving on after the NCAA Championships, as he will be the new head coach at Utah Valley.

Popolizio recently named his replacement, somebody he is very familiar with both on and off the mat. Zach Esposito was named the new associate head coach for the Wolfpack.

“We had to go out and find somebody that has established themselves and has a great resume and experience,” Popolizio said. “I’ve had a relationship with Zach for many years, and he has been a guy that I’ve always had a lot of respect for. I think he checks all the boxes for being one of the best coaches in the country no matter what role he is in.

“Most importantly, he mirrors the mentality and culture that we have built up and want to keep moving in the right direction. I think that is one thing we have always had from our coaches here, total buy-in to that.”

Esposito comes to Raleigh after being the National Freestyle Development and Resident Coach for USA Wrestling this past year. Prior to that appointment, Esposito spent 21 years at Oklahoma State, both as an athlete and coach, serving as the associate head coach from 2017 until his move to Colorado Springs last fall.

“I’m thrilled to join Pat Popolizio and the NC State wrestling staff,” Esposito said in the official release from NC State. “His reputation as a coach and the culture he has cultivated at NC State is truly remarkable. I look forward to developing student-athletes and working alongside the rest of the dedicated staff members of the Wolfpack wrestling program.”

Esposito wrestled at Oklahoma State from 2002-06. He was the NCAA champion at 149 pounds as a junior, and helped his squad win four NCAA team titles while he went 120-12 for his career.